Omen
by Wusai
Summary: Power... Most want it, few have it, and some wish to destroy it. Yet those who try to destroy it are claimed the evil ones... [Reuploaded; parts I and II combined; new part II written.]
1. Part I

**Omen**   
by Wusai 

    **Disclaimer.** Hunter x Hunter belongs to the great Yoshihiro Togashi.   
    **Claimer.** I own my ideas; hahaha.   
    **A.N.** The title probably has nothing to do with the fic… I'm listening to Xenogears music right now, and that's the song I'm listening to. d00d, Yasunori Mitsuda r0xx3rz.   
    **Note.** The 'faemier' mentioned in this chapter and further chapters is not an actual creature. I didn't want to name them familiars, or name them daemons… so I combined the terms. Just so you guys won't go looking up what it is. And if you do, and if there's a result, do tell me! O_O!   
    **Faemier.** pronounced fah-me-air. That's spelled out in English phonetics.   
    **Note Two.** The Genei Ryodan will be called the Phantom Brigade. Why? 'Cause I said so. 

:·~§~·: 

**Part I**

:·~§~·: 

    Power. Most crave it, few have it, and some are out to destroy it. Of the few who possess it, there are those who use it nobly, and those who abuse it. Those who use it nobly are beginning to diminish, and at a rapid rate. 

    The ones who own Power are rulers, kings and queens, members of royal families. Those who crave it are the average villager, though some crave it more than others, and some give little thought about it. Nonetheless, they who give little thought about it are no different than they who crave it; they still want the invisible Power. 

    And those who are out to destroy it? 

    Of course, they are not out to destroy Power itself. Every person wants Power; no person is born without that everlasting craving. They are the ones who are out to destroy the kings and queens, to destroy their reign, to earn freedom. However, not all see their acts as noble; many consider them evil beings. 

    "King Nostrad, here are some more forms for you to sign," said Kasani, the servant. She set down an enormous stack of papers before the king, a man with graying hair, many wrinkles, and an expression of uttermost unhappiness written on his face. He picked up a pen and sighed as his eyes scanned over the tiny print on the paper. Kasani bounced down the hall. 

     "Princess Neon, these people want their fortunes told," Kasani informed Neon, in a seemingly forced happy manner, as she plopped down an even bigger stack of paper down in front of the young princess. Her baby blue eyes widened, if possible. Her lower lip began to tremble as she counted the papers. 

     "Ka-Kasani…" Neon stuttered, "There are three hundred seventy-six papers in this stack. That's seventy-seven more than last time." 

     "I know! I noticed, too!" Kasani exclaimed, happily. "Your fame is finally spreading; I never thought it would take so long!" 

     "…Yes, I suppose so," Neon said, and sighed. Nothing she could say would ever change Kasani. She picked up a pen. "Lovely Ghost Writer!" 

    Kasani watched with interest as Neon's baby blue eyes turned dull and blank, her faemier, a rabbit, mirroring her expression, and watched the green ghost clamp itself onto Neon's hand, moving it by itself. She brushed a stray lock of dark brown hair out of her wide, round, black eyes. Moments later, Neon dropped the piece of paper that she was writing on, and Kasani quickly picked it up. She set it on a tray, which was on top of Neon's counter. Again this process repeated, until all three hundred seventy-six fortunes were told. 

     "Yay! All done!" Neon exclaimed, happily. She threw her arms up into the air so enthusiastically that her long, pink hair jerked out of the loose bun it was in at the back of her head. Kasani sweatdropped, and picked up the tray, hugging it close to her chest. 

     "All right then, Neon-sama. I'll take these fortunes back to King Nostrad, and you can do whatever you like. Is there anything you want? Maybe the king will get it for you!" Kasani said, and Neon's big, blue eyes gained a thoughtful look. 

     "Hmm… I need a new journal. But not just any journal! It has to be from the eighteenth century or earlier! Here, I'll write it down for you… I know how forgetful you are," Neon offered, excitedly. Kasani nodded, and Neon messily scribbled down the information and handed it to her. 

     "All right, Master Neon. Have fun doing whatever you want to do!" Kasani shouted, jubilantly, as she ran down the hall. "Oops!" 

    Kasani bent down to pick up the papers she had dropped, and picked them up slowly. She looked both ways down the hall before pulling out something from underneath her sweater. 

    She raised the necklace to her face, making sure the inverted cross pendant was before her mouth. She momentarily released her forced, jubilant bubble, and became more serious, her true personality. 

    "Can you hear me?" she mumbled, then raised the pendant to her ear. 

    "Of course I can. The king seems to be under a lot of pressure, no?" 

    "Yes. Neon is also under quite a bit of pressure. I think the time will be soon." 

    "Hmm…" 

    Kasani winced as she heard the scream of some torture victim in the background. 

    "We should wait for a little while, hm? At least until the others come. That way we can have more fun." 

    "I dunno… who knows how long they'll stay under pressure?" 

    "But still—" Another scream in the background. "This job is getting boring. They never bring in any fun prisoners." 

    "…You sadist," Kasani joked, and picked up the last paper. "Well, I shouldn't talk to you any longer, or else someone might notice me mumbling to myself. I'll contact you again later." 

    "All right. Bye." 

    Kasani tucked the necklace back into her sweater, and bounced off back to King Nostrad. She set the tray on the table marked 'to be sent out', and handed the slip of paper to the king. 

    "Neon wants a… what was it again? I forgot… Anyway, it's on the paper," Kasani said, then bounced back down the hall. King Nostrad sighed again, and signed his last paper. One would think that every time he sighed, he gained a wrinkle or another white hair. It was truly possible. 

    Kasani peeked into another room, and she smiled. 

    "Found you," she said, and strode to the girl's side. The girl paused her sewing, and looked up. 

    "What do you want, Kasani?" she asked, irritably. "I'm a bit busy." 

    "Xin wants to wait a while before we launch the… plan," she began, an edge of seriousness to her voice. "I want to launch the plan now, since we don't know how long their pressure will last. What do you think?" 

    "I'm not sure. Both sound reasonable… Is three of us enough?" 

    "Why are you having doubts, Margaret? After all, you are the most confident out of us. Shall we toss a coin?" 

    "That's fine with me. As Xin if it's ok with him." 

    "Margaret says she thinks both plans are reasonable… We should decide when to launch the plan with a coin toss." 

    "Fine by me. Spider." 

    "Web. It was…" 

    "Spider, no?" 

    "Yes. All right, we'll wait for a while. The rest are coming soon, I suppose?" 

    "Yes. Patience." 

    "Right. We'll wait… though I don't want to. I'll be off now." 

    "Bye." 

    "Same." 

    "So I suppose I can work in peace now?" asked the blue-nette. 

    "Yes. I'm off to clean the palace; see you later." 

    "'Kay. Bye." 

    Kasani bounced down the hall again, and picked up the cleaning supplies. She proceeded to clean the palace as she said. About an hour later, she walked outside with a bucket of dirty water, and threw the water out in an arc. She turned, and was about to walk back inside, when she heard a rustle behind her. Curious, she turned to the source of the sound, but there was nothing. She shrugged it off, and turned back to the doorway, only to have the barrel of a gun pressed to her forehead. 

    Then, there was the sound of a gunshot. 

:·~§~·:

    Phinx absently stroked his golden scorpion as he spoke with the leader, Kuroro. The cold ocean winds blew, gently tossing the small boat from side to side, sending it rolling over the waves in a most unpleasant manner. Sheets of rain seemed to want to drown the boat, however, the passengers shrugged it off, as though it were only a light drizzle. 

    "We'll be there soon," Kuroro said, his normally gelled back hair hanging loose, framing his face, making it seem paler than it normally was. At that moment, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, followed soon after by a roll of thunder. Then, an enormous gust of wind; the boat nearly turned over. 

    "Ugh…" Ubogin groaned, his face a sickly shade of green. He ran over to the side of the boat on large legs, covered by pads of fur, and vomited. 

    "Hah! Who would've thought that our so-called 'strongest' member was weak against the _sea_?" exclaimed a loud voice that could only belong to one person: Nobunaga. The solitary person having a louder voice was Ubogin, who proved it with his response: 

    "Shaddup, ya bastard!" he roared. Immediately following his retort was another wave of nausea, causing Nobunaga to laugh louder. The miniature bear cub at Ubogin's feet growled menacingly, thus quieting Nobunaga. Or rather, _temporarily_ quieting him. 

    "It's lucky we escaped on time," Franklin, a large, frightening looking man commented, "or else Coltopi would have been caught." 

    "Mm," Coltopi replied as he made a copy of a wooden crate for amusement. His face was covered by long clumps of blue green hair. While everyone had some sort of animal at their side, Coltopi didn't. Not even a flea living in that forest of hair. 

    "I hope Shizuku, Machi, and Feitan are all right..." Franklin said to no one in particular. 

    "Feitan?" Phinx snorted. "He'd be a torturer at that castle for sure. Everyone'd be too scared of him to even notice that he doesn't have a faemier." 

    "True, true. But what if the king decides to have an inspection?" Franklin replied. From the way he said 'king', one would think that he didn't bother capitalizing it when he wrote it, even though that was a rule in their spelling and grammar. 

    "He's fast enough to escape," Phinx said. 

    "Has Paku delivered the message to Shizuku?" Shalnark asked, changing the subject. 

    "Most likely," Kuroro replied. "She left three days ago…" 

    "Ah! I see the shore!" Nobunaga yelled. 

    "Wonderful," Ubogin muttered. "Wish the storm'd calm down." 

    "Stop whining," Nobunaga ordered. 

    "I wasn't." 

    "You were." 

    "Wasn't." 

    "Were." 

    "Wasn't." 

    "Were." 

    "Be quiet, both of you," Kuroro commanded, calmly. With that simple command, the two loudest members of the Phantom Brigade quieted down. However, there was still the occasional whisper of 'wasn't' or 'were'. 

    The small, wooden boat stopped at the shore moments later. The Phantom Brigade disembarked the boat, with Ubogin walking rather shakily. Once they made sure they had everything, Kuroro opened up the book he carried at his side, and flipped through the pages. Oddly, the ink in the book did not seem to be affected by the rain. 

    Once he found the thing he was looking for, he said the name of the skill. 

    "Sphere of Fire," he said, extending his palm. A, surprise surprise, sphere of fire appeared on his palm, and he pushed it toward the boat. Once the fire landed on the boat, it erupted into a raging fire, consuming the boat hungrily. The people on the other side of the lake would never know what had happened to them. 

:·~§~·:

    "You could have just _told_ the plans to me…" Kasani mumbled, rubbing the place on her forehead where the bullet had hit. 

    "It would have taken too long, and someone might have heard," Pakunoda, the woman standing before her, replied. "Also, you might've forgotten. At least this way, you'll have the memory… for a while…" 

    "True, true…" 

    The sky above them had turned dark for a while, but the clouds were slowly beginning to part. 

    "Looks like they've arrived, since the lake always has a large storm when someone tries to cross it. The storm's so large that the clouds can even cloud over the sky over here," Pakunoda commented. 

    "I know. Geography was my best subject in school, surprisingly. Don't know why I can remember that stuff and forget that I'm right handed…" 

    "But you're left handed." 

    "Agh. I forgot. Oh, but make sure your faemier is visible. The King does inspections of visitors that he finds on the castle grounds." 

    "All right." 

    An amber colored cat appeared on Pakunoda's shoulder, batting at her hair. 

    "What about you, Shizuku? Don't you have to have your faemier out?" Pakunoda asked, looking over Shizuku. 

    "No. The king trusts his servants," Shizuku replied. 

    "What about Feitan? How did he slip through?" 

    "…I forgot," Shizuku replied, sheepishly. Pakunoda sighed. 

    "Oh well. That's not important, anyway. I'll be meeting up with the others, then. We'll meet up later, then," Pakunoda said, then walked away. Shizuku picked up the bucket, and slowly walked back inside. 

    "They've arrived," Shizuku said to the blue-nette when she passed the room she was sewing in. The blue-nette, Machi, nodded. 

    _Now I only have to hope that the plan will be successful…_

:·~§~·:

    **A.N.** First chapter done! ^_^ More on faemiers in future chapters.   
    ~Wusai 


	2. Part II

**Omen**   
by Wusai 

    **Disclaimer.** Hunter x Hunter » Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, etc.   
    **Claimer.** Ideas » Wusai.   
    **A.N.** Yep. Reviving it. On other account. Most people on the HxH fics ML seem to like this fic... amazing. Also, I'm extremely sorry about not remembering most of the people that Mr. Nostrad hired along with Kurapika. My MangaViewer is not working right now, I'm too lazy to unzip the files (even though it takes seconds), and I'm too lazy to look through the websites which might have their names. Besides, I checked HunterHQ and A Hunter's World, and if they don't have them, I'm not willing to dig around the rest of the net. I'll only include the ones that I remember. 

:·~§~·: 

**Part II**

:·~§~·: 

    "Princess Neon," said Kasani, a few days after she had received the memory, poking her head into the girl's room. "There's a person waiting for you in the back courtyard." 

    "A visitor? For me? But who would visit me...?" she wondered aloud, and jumped off her bed, her bunny on her shoulder, and followed Kasani to the back courtyard. There stood a man in rich clothes, holding a book with a handprint on it. On his shoulder perched a hawk, and on the person's forehead was a small, blue cross. Neon knew that she had seen that symbol before, but she couldn't quite remember where. Kasani retreated back to the castle, leaving Neon alone with the visitor. 

    "Princess Neon..." the visitor said in a smooth voice. "I have heard of your fortunetelling skills. I know that you are very busy, but I would like to witness you writing the fortune. May I?" 

    "Umm... well... Sure, I suppose," Neon said, hesitantly. She liked this visitor; he was polite, but he seemed menacing in a way. She shrugged it off; she was thinking too much. "Let me go inside and get a piece of paper... just a second." 

    "All right." 

    A short while later, Neon emerged from the castle, holding a piece of paper and a pencil. She asked the man for his birthday and blood type, and he replied with the answers. Then, Neon began her fortunetelling process. The man watched her with eyes that seemed to observe every one of her movements. A second later, Neon handed him the paper. 

    "Here you go! Oh, and... If you don't mind me asking, what's that book you're holding?" she asked, pointing to the mysterious book. 

    "You can take a look at it. Just don't peek inside, please, because there are many private things in there. You could say that it's a type of journal, maybe," the stranger said, handing her the book, carefully masking the eager look in his eyes. Neon, holding the book, inspected the front cover, and curiously placed her hand on the handprint beneath the title, _Skill Hunter_. Her hand was almost the same size as the handprint, just a little smaller. She handed the book back to the visitor. 

    "Thank you," the visitor said, and walked away. Neon looked down, and noticed that he seemed to have forgotten to take the fortune paper. She held it in her hand, and was about to call out to the stranger, but when she blinked, he was gone. 

:·~§~·:

    "Was it successful?" Pakunoda asked when Kuroro entered the clearing that she and the other members of the Brigade were staying in. 

    "Yes. The girl is too idiotic... We'll have to move quickly, though, because tomorrow, she'll find out that her skill is gone. After the king finds out that her skill is gone, he'll go into a nervous breakdown, and the empire should crumble. For a while, at least," Kuroro replied. "Coltopi, do you think you could duplicate a sheet of paper from my book? I don't want to tear it out..." 

    "Yes." Coltopi took the book from Kuroro, opened it to the last, blank page, and placed his left hand on it. His hands emitted a small, blue glow, and a blank page appeared in his right hand. He then handed the paper to Kuroro. 

    "Thank you," Kuroro said, and wrote a message on it with his nen: 

    _Margaret, Kasani, Xin: _

    The gift has been given to us. Dawn tomorrow, the hawk flies. 

    --K.L. 

    He rolled up the note and gave it to the hawk perched on his shoulder, who took the paper in its left claw. 

    "Castle, Margaret, Kasani, or Xin," Kuroro muttered to the hawk, and it jerked its head, as though nodding. It then flew away, towards the castle. 

    "In the meantime, what'll we do?" Ubo asked, then added, almost whining, "I'm bored." 

    "In the meantime," Kuroro replied, "we will have to think of a way to escape the Blacklist Hunters. The king, once he finds that the princess's ability is missing, will surely hire at least five Blacklist Hunters of the best degree. Some of these Blacklist Hunters are extremely good, so we'll have to come up with a couple plans to defeat them." 

    "Aw, why are you so worried, Leader?" Nobunaga asked, casually, "You've got millions of abilities, and we're not that bad, yanno!" 

    "True, but we can't underestimate them. Last time we did, and we almost got caught, do you remember?" 

    "A'right, a'right..." 

    The hawk returned with a simple message scribbled on the back of the paper: "_The ten will become thirteen._" Then, through the night, the group of ten huddled around each other, mumbling plans. At last, when dawn broke, there was a blur heading their way, and then it stopped: it was Margaret, Kasani, and Xin, or Machi, Shizuku, and Feitan, respectively, as were their true names. 

    "It never ceases to amaze me with the ditziness and stupidity of princesses these days," Machi commented, and the others nodded. 

    "Ma~chi~!" came a voice from within the group of people. "I _missed_ you~!" 

    "Oh yeah, I missed you too, Hisoka," Machi replied, sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "So what's the plan?" 

    Pakunoda loaded three memory bullets into her gun, and then fired them at the trio. Their Leader's voice echoed through their head. 

    "We cross the Western Nostrad Mountains, coming to the village of Sanctuary. I'll use the Priest's Summon, and that should be able to get the people out of their homes, and we can raid them of whatever we need. Then, I'll use the 'Forgive and Forget' before we leave, and they would completely forget what happened and who came. We'll then cross the Eastern Nostrad Mountains, and we'll come to the Crystal Lake, which we will cross, coming to the city of Alana, where we'll stay for a while. That city is filled with other thieves and such, so the Blacklist Hunters will have a bit of a time finding us." 

    "Got it?" their Leader asked, and, not waiting for their reply, continued, "We'll leave now." 

    The thirteen of them traveled at top speed over the Western Nostrad Mountains, eventually coming to the village Sanctuary. The village was quite small; it was comprised of little wooden huts on well-farmed land. The people seemed quite happy, and children were playing joyfully in the streets. The Leader took out _Skill Hunter_, flipped to a page about one-third into the book, and began to use the skill. The cross on his forehead seemed to glow as he murmured words of a foreign language, which, when translated, meant, "_Invoke the God of the Sky so that the pure heavens may turn dark! Invoke the God of the Weather so that the pure sunshine may turn into rain! Invoke the God of the People so that some will turn against each other, and the rest shall be plagued by the illusions they fear most! And lastly, have a few chosen ones sacrifice themselves to satisfy the Gods!_" 

    The sky darkened, and the playing children stopped their games, looking up, wondering what was happening. Then, enormous pellets of rain began to pound into the ground, making the children run around in fear, afraid that the rain would crush them. The brigade of thirteen stood on the outskirts of the city, watching the event before them; it was a rare occurrence that the thirteen, even the Leader, were able to see. A few moments later, when everyone was inside their huts with now ruined roofs, the rain stopped; there was the sound of a loud brawl from within one of the houses, stimulating the entire village, until all that was heard was one voice of many arguments and screams. People ran outside their houses, throwing things at each other. It was then the cue of the thirteen to enter the village, raiding the houses of their valuables and whatever the villagers cherished, and taking what the Brigade needed. At long last, the omnipresent voice became a unified scream as a few chosen people simply dropped dead. About a minute later, the skies cleared, and sobbing and wails could be heard. The Brigade again traveled to the outskirts of the village, and their Leader thumbed through _Skill Hunter_, and used the 'Forgive and Forget' skill, making the wails and sobbing stop, leaving a unified murmur of puzzling over exactly what happened. 

    Loaded down with their stolen valuables, the Brigade continued carrying out their plan, traveling a little slower over the cold, arid Eastern Nostrad Mountains. The Brigade arrived at the edge of Crystal Lake, and Coltopi duplicated one of the larger boats sitting on the shore. The Brigade boarded the boat, stashing their stolen items in the back. Ubo and Phinx rowed the boat, with Ubo whining after every couple of minutes "Why do _I_ have to row the boat?", and often with Machi's reply of "Because you are quote-quote _strong_ unquote-unquote." Eventually, after a fairly short voyage over the crystal clear waters of Crystal Lake, the thirteen arrived at Alana. The city's atmosphere was in complete contrast to the lake; the city radiated an aura that said, 'Enter and we'll rob you!' while grinning. Kuroro thumbed through _Skill Hunter_, using the cloth that enabled him to carry all the Brigade's stolen items in his pocket. Then, they entered the city, greeted by the loud bazaar. 

:·~§~·:

    "We understand, King Nostrad." 

    Before the distressed King stood a group of people. The one in the front was a young man, no more than sixteen, seventeen at the most, years of age, with blonde hair closely cropped to his face, wearing a blue and orange garment, a scarlet snake wound around his right arm. Behind him stood a short and stout person with a face somewhat like a hamster, clad in a green dress, with a nightingale perched on her shoulder. The top of the person's head was bald, and reddish purple hair hung from the sides of her head. She looked as though she had been struck with some sort of disease, to be frank. The woman standing beside her, however, completely contrasted with her appearance: Her face was slim, her lips full and a little pouty, and her orange hair was tied up in a strange fashion on the top of her head, more like a miniature pole sticking up out of her head than a twist of hair. She held a Siamese cat in her arms. She wore a shirt revealing quite a bit of cleavage, and a skirt flaunting her long legs. Beside her stood a man of Indian roots, bushy black hair tied in a ponytail on the back of his head. He looked a little grouchy, and was clad in casual clothes. Dogs surrounded him, all sitting obediently. 

    "Do remember," the King began, "that I am paying you to find and _kill_ the rogues who have stolen Neon's ability. Only _after_ they stole her ability did she remember that the cross on the outlaw's forehead was the same one as the one Kuroro Lucifer has on his forehead! But anyway, you all should know about what he and his Phantom Brigade have done, and I'm sure you'll be glad to rid the world of them. All right?" 

    "All right," replied the boy in front. He then turned and walked toward the door, apparently in a hurry to leave the castle. Five chains materialized on his left arm, rattling as he walked along. The others walked alongside him, exiting the castle. 

    "So," the Indian began after a while of silence, "where are we going first?" 

    "Sanctuary. Something happened there, and it could be connected with the brigade. You should know this, Scuwala," replied the blonde, calmly, almost in a monotone. 

    "Kurapika," the short person began, addressing the blonde, "are you sure we will be able to handle the brigade? We're only four people, after all, and the brigade is first off thirteen people, and secondly, reckless murderers." 

    "Yes, Senritsu," Kurapika replied, as if his words settled the question, as if his words commanded the Diety to force the Brigade to lose, and force the group of four to prevail. 

    They continued on in tense silence, traveling on the same road the Brigade had used. They eventually arrived at Sanctuary, as the Brigade had, and pondered on the outskirts of where the Brigade may have traveled. 

    "I say that they traveled over the mountains on that side to the untamed forest. It's the perfect hiding place, right?" Scuwala said with an expression that added, 'This is the right answer! There is nothing to wrong it!' 

    "Riiight," the redhead replied, sarcastically. "You know, even the Brigade probably wouldn't be able to stay in the forest for long. They'll have to raid some village for stuff, and _someone_ will spot them and tell the King, you know." 

    "I hate it when you're right, Veze," Scuwala grumbled, and Veze smirked. 

    "They would've crossed the Eastern mountains and gone to Alana," Kurapika murmured, and the rest turned to him; he had been silent for the while which they were pondering. 

    "Why Alana?" Senritsu asked. 

    "It's obvious," Kurapika replied, a calm, serious expression on his face. "Alana is ridden with thieves and the like. The Brigade would be able to blend in easily, and it would make it hard for us to find them. Therefore, Alana is the perfect place to hide." 

    "True," Scuwala replied, "but you said so yourself: it would make it hard for us to find them. So how will we find them?" 

    "My chains," Kurapika answered, holding up his left hand adorned with chains, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Now let's go. We can't afford to waste any time." 

:·~§~·:

    The Brigade entered the crowded bazaar in Alana. Merchants were shouting out incredibly low and high prices, completely ignorant of people looting them. 

    "What's the point of selling things if they're only going to get stolen?" Nobunaga asked the air before him, receiving no reply. Hisoka was in a giddy mood, randomly launching cards at innocent bystanders, chucking at their surprised reactions. After a short while of walking, Feitan and Coltopi both slowed to a stop before a particular stall, Feitan narrowing his already very narrow eyes, and Coltopi... well, no one would be able to see his expression, anyway. 

    "Hey, hurry up!" Nobunaga called out to the two. He then jogged to them. "What're you two staring at?" 

    "Hey Mister, you want to buy a faemier? Here's a high quality one for two million jeni! Come on, you know you want one..." 

    "Eh?" Nobunaga turned to the merchant, who was holding a plump cat. The cat had an expression clearly saying, 'What am I doing here?!'. Nobunaga shook his head as a 'no', then practically dragged the two shorter men back to the Brigade. 

    "Gawd, the way you two were staring at those things, I thought you wanted one or something!" Nobunaga said loudly, and was about to say something else, but shut up at the icy glare Feitan gave him. Pakunoda fell behind of the Leader and pulled Nobunaga out of apparent earshot from the two. 

    "Do you know what it feels like to have a faemier taken away from you?" she asked, sharply. 

    "No... I still have mine, see?" he said, holding up his faemier. She glared at him. 

    "If you part with your faemier willingly, it will only hurt a little bit. But if your faemier is forcibly taken from you, there'll be excruciating pain. Torture, pretty much," Pakunoda explained. 

    "So you're saying they had their faemiers taken from them, unwillingly?" Nobunaga asked. 

    "Well, Coltopi sold his. He lived in an extremely poor village, and the only way he and his family could survive and pay off the King's high taxes was to sell his faemier. But Feitan had his forcibly taken from him from a couple of robbers when he was about... five, I think. Right in front of his family, who just watched, not doing anything while he yelled for the robbers to stop. Not a pleasant memory, I'd say," Pakunoda hastily explained, noticing Feitan glaring at her. "So don't bother them about faemiers. I'd have thought by now that you would've known..." 

    Pakunoda hurriedly caught up with the Leader, and continued walking behind him. Nobunaga continued walking, a thoughtful silence hanging around him, and with an icy glare boring into him. 

:·~§~·:

    "Here we are. Alana at last." 

    The group of four surveyed the city from the outskirts. They had never seen a more disorganized city; it was almost as if the King's laws hadn't reached this place. People were stealing from others every second, though about half of them had the stolen items stolen from them by the original owners. Merchants were desperately trying to sell their things in order to pay the King's taxes, oblivious to the fact that thieves were stealing their merchandise and the money that they worked hard for. Around every corner were at least five homeless people, all too weak or sick to steal anything, resorting to begging for money and/or food, neither of which they got. 

    "...I see why they chose here," Veze said at last. "Now, Kurapika, you said you knew how to find them?" 

    "Which direction are the Brigade heading in?" he asked his chains, ignoring Veze. A very faint reddish glow appeared around his black eyes. After a moment of swaying around, one of the chains lifted and pointed towards his left. "This direction. Come on." 

:·~§~·:

    **A.N.** x_x; Finally! *rereads and proofreads* Man, this took a while... I had to force myself to write parts of it... but the main thing is the fact that IT. IS. DONE! *claps for herself*   
    ~Wusai 


End file.
